


Archetype Two

by quietmoon



Category: Fairy Tail
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, F/M, Fairy Tail Chapter 424
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-03-15
Updated: 2015-03-18
Packaged: 2020-06-30 09:41:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,640
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19850509
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/quietmoon/pseuds/quietmoon
Summary: Gray leaves her and he'll never let himself regret it. At least, he tries not to.





	1. Alone

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **dedication:** _I'm on Gray's side._ Let's talk about why.  
>  **soundtrack:** sleep baby sleep—broods  
> Compliant up to ch424. My headcannons are exploding all over the place, and I'm beyond tired with the Fullbuster bashing 'cause i stand by Gray 100%. _disclaimer:_ i take no shit and make no apologies. this is my gruvia. and yeah, juvia is my queen, so. don't shout at me. you'll get it by the end. thanks.

In the darker depths of a knotted wood, sitting on the root of the gnarled tree, is a laughing man. He clenches a piece of paper between his two hands. His head is bowed, and his chuckles are quiet — but in the otherwise silent forest, the sound echoes. 

He unfolds the paper and reads it once again, glancing over it in that fleeting way someone who's read the same book time and time again would start on the first page, before crushing it into a small ball and stuffing it into the back pocket of his overcoat. Then, after a second's pause, he fishes it out again, reads it over again, and again, and again. 

It slip through his fingers. He lets it fall. 

Gray starts back along the hidden path that winds between the trees, not sparing a glance back for the discarded letter left amongst the rotting leaves. 

* * *

Juvia worries her lip, staring anxiously out the window. Shadows of sunlight flit through the glass, interrupted by the rain and window pane. 

She strokes the blanket covering her body absentmindedly. "Juvia... is a rain woman again." 

"Eh?" Lucy turns from the window. "Did you say something?" 

Juvia shakes her heads, spreading her curls across the pillow. 

The last thing she had expected was to see Lucy, Wendy and Natsu running for her through the rain. Of course, no matter who it had it been, they would have been the last people she'd have expected. There was only one person she was waiting for, one person she would hav wnated to see through the rain — and he had not come home yet. 

As if reading her mind, Wendy suddenly voices her thoughts. "How could it be he left without even leaving a note? It's not like Gray—" 

Lucy barely masks her scoff. "Goodbyes don't seem to be our guild's forte." 

_What guild?_ Juvia wants to ask, but she keeps her lips shut and her eyes glued to the wet weather outside. When she unexpectedly shivers from the cold, she pulls up the blanket around her. 

Wendy notices. "Are you alright? Do you feel any better?" The little girl fusses over Juvia like a mother, and it almost makes her smile. "Shall I put down your fever some more?" 

"Juvia is fine," she says mildly, before pulling the blanket up to her chin and turning away to face the wall. It's strange, but having so many people around after so long only makes her feel lonelier. The days she spent here with Gray-sama, all that sunshine, all that light — after seeing it disappear so suddenly, after days and days of waiting for any sign of its return, the voices of her former guildmates don't even sound real. 

Natsu is still transfixed by the rain — Juvia doubts he's even paying attention to their conversation. She can sense Wendy standing by the bedside, prepared to heal at a moment's notice, and Lucy — Lucy Heartfilia, the girl made of sunshine from so long ago — is different from how she used to be. It took Juvia a little while to notice. There was the fever in the way, and her initial shock at their appearance, but she's sure of it. Lucy is different. Juvia is not sure how, but she is. 

She says Fairy Tail is — _was_ , she reminds herself — not very good at goodbyes. Juvia must agree. She doesn't know what happened between Lucy and Natsu, but she can sense the underlying tension, and she recognises all the hidden emotions hiding behind Lucy's eyes. It's as if Juvia knows exactly what Lucy's thinking, what she's feeling — she can see, in her just like herself, someone who was left behind. 

Although, from what Natsu said, it sounds as if he at least... left a note. 

He disappeared, but he gave warning. 

Unbidden, tears gather behind Juvia's closed eyelids. She's crying, _again_. 

Juvia wipes at her eyes, and the rain continues to fall.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> screw chapter length, i'll update as I go.  
> the ironic thing is i never really cared all that much about gruvia until: a) i realised that Gray and i are pretty much the same person, b) Erza called Gray out on his shit, c) Gray called Juvia out on her shit, and d) i read chapter 424. i love unrequited gruvia. i love actual character development for Gray. _I may just ship this to my grave._


	2. anger

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **soundtrack:** echo—jason walker  
> Irrationality is often a consequence of trauma.

_ before  _

It's his _responsibility_ , damn it. 

He needs to ensure their safety. It's the only way, he knows it is, there's no other choice but this. Only by ensuring Fairy Tail's safety, after _properly_ defeating it's enemies, could his guild ever really go back to how it was. He knew it when his father's death left a black stain on his right arm — a tattoo, a _trophy_. And he knows it now. Nothing is the same; everything has changed. 

The guild can't go back to how it used to be. Too many ghosts have risen from the ground for it to be that easy. 

"Gray-sama?" 

He starts at the sudden warmth of her fingertips on his forearm, and stops glowering at the grass. Juvia's watching him with worried eyes. He glances down at her hand, which she retracts hastily — "Is everything alright? Are you thinking about visiting Isvan again?" 

He stares at her blankly for a second before sighing languidly and turning back to face the window. "It's nothing." 

The name of his hometown sounds alien on her lips. Gray hates it. 

He can almost feel her anxious gaze on the back of his head, she's so obvious about it. But he ignores it. His gaze skates across the quiet park of Magnolia. 

He hates it all. 

* * *

Master disassembles the guild, and Gray would be lying if he said he hadn't seen it coming. 

Nothing is the same. Everything has changed. 

His guild is scarred. 

And someone has to heal it — someone has to fix it, someone needs to get revenge, someone needs to eradicate the enemies of the guild so they can never rise up like that in the future. And who else could it ever fall to but him? 

Not Lucy, who's still crying over a broken key and a lost friend. Not Erza, who's refusing to let anyone see the pain she's in. Not Natsu — God, no, Gray wouldn't even dream of it — 'cause that stupid flame-headed moron's off playing hero, training in ignorance, leaving a fucking note for his girlfriend and thinking that'll do. Gray bets he doesn't even know that the guild's gone. He'd bet his life on it. 

Natsu will probably show up again in a couple months, apologise to Lucy — who'll, of course, forgive him at the drop of a hat — and continue down his road of careless abandon. 

Well, Gray couldn't care less. Let Natsu do what he wants. Let Lucy do what she wants. Let them all go along their merry way. It's not his problem. 

He knows what he has to do. 

* * *

No matter how many times he clears his throat, the lump won't go away. His chest hurts. And it's  fucking _freezing_. Damn, how long's it been since he's actually felt the cold? 

His eyes stay locked on the little wooden marker, a pathetic standalone in a white wasteland, just another little memory that never came to fruition. But surrounded by rubble, it looks like part of the landscape. Like it was meant to be there. 

He scowls at the names. _Silver. Mika._ Or at least he tries to scowl, but he's too tired and too cold and he just ends up staring at it for so long it makes his eyes sting. The cold, it's making his eyes sting, or he just forgets to blink — screw it, but his eyes burn. And no tears fall. 

_ Silver. Mika.  _

They may be resting in the ground where they should be, and snow may cover all the signs they was ever breathing, laughing, his _parents_ — but Gray knows the truth like it's branded into his bone. Because nothing is the same, and everything has changed. 

This little wooden cross in a ruined town in the north is all he has left in the world. No guild to go home to. No friends waiting for him. His parents lie in the frozen ground, nothing but empty corpses. This is all he has left. This all he has. This is all he is. 

The fury in his gut blazes and burns at the thought. It's been like this ever since Tartaros. He's always _angry_. At what, he doesn't know — at _everything_. Because how could his guildmates give up so fucking easily? How could Master do that to them — to _him_? He knew, he fucking _knew_ that Fairy Tail was everything to Gray. Why would Tartaros go so damn far? Killing people, torturing them, ressurecting men who died long ago — how _dare_ that shitty demon do that to him? _How dare he do that to his father?_

_ Silver. Mika.  _

Gray knows what he has to do. He knows his job. He knows his responsibilities. As a mage of Fairy Tail — because that's what he is, that's what he'll always be, official or not — and as a 

friend, and... and as a son. He'll follow in his footsteps his father left him, a clear path like imprints on snow, and he'll finish what Silver died for. Died for again. 

_ Silver. Mika. Silver. Silver. Gray.  _

"U-Um... Gray-sama." 

He whips around in shock, losing his train of thought. "Juvia! Y-You followed me here?" 

She shakes her head, so clearly distressed it throws him off. "Juvia is sorry, so sorry!" 

His eyes widen for a split second as he realises how he must look. Covered in snow, sitting and scowling at the grave of his parents for hours on end in the freezing cold, mouth turned down in a painful grimace, brow pulled together in a fearsome glower — he must look terrifying. But just as he's about to tell her that it isn't _her_ he's so angry at, it's something else entirely, he catches sigh of her expression. 

She looks so anxious, so worried, so deeply _upset_ — and it puts him on red alert instantly. 

"There's something—" She starts off hesitantly, eyebrows drawn together. "Juvia wanted to tell you so badly..." 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i had this glorious reply for someone who was convinced i was bashing juvia on tumblr, and my phone deleted all 800 words of it. i'm crying. no, really, i am


End file.
